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UK: Drugs testing has more negatives than positives Frank Gerstenberg The Scotsman Wednesday 25 Feb 2004 Opinion THE boy sitting in front of me looked confident. To the best of his knowledge, he hadn't broken any school rules recently. "Rumours, John, it's only rumours," I began, "but the trouble is that they're coming from too many different sources." His smile began to waver - what were these rumours, he asked. "Oh, just that you're taking cannabis regularly, and that you're the person in your year who knows where to get it," I replied slowly. John denied it, of course - he had never touched the stuff - but his face, several shades paler, told the truth. When I asked him what I should say to his mother at tomorrow's parents' evening, he blustered for a moment or two, until I interrupted him. "I've got no hard evidence, of course, John, it's only rumour. Let's make a deal - when I have hard evidence, I tell your mother and you leave the school." With that, John left my office. I have no idea whether my strategy worked, but I never heard the rumours again and he completed his school career 18 months later with far better academic results than his teachers predicted, and had gained a place in the lst XV. What would have happened if we had tested John for drugs without any real evidence? If he had tested positive, he would almost certainly have been asked to leave the school, he would have failed several of his exams, and would probably have drifted for the next few years. If the test had proved negative, he would have scored one over the system, lost the trust of his teachers, and might well have become the focus of student discontent. The proposal by Tony Blair (embraced enthusiastically, it seems, by our First Minister) to test students randomly in school seems to come from the same stable as an earlier proposal to fine hooligans "on the spot" for anti-social behaviour - it just won't work, even if it were desirable, which it is not. Why won't it work? First, because the procedure will be under-resourced ("Books or drug- testing equipment? Your choice, headmaster"). And second, because it is open to abuse. Teachers have no desire to become involved in overseeing the giving of urine samples, and street-wise students know their rights. One can even envisage groups of students embarking on a campaign of mass disobedience - "Come on, let's all take some cannabis, and see what they can do about it." Specific testing for drugs, however, does work when a decision has been taken to keep a student who has admitted possessing drugs in school. Policies differ between schools - and particularly so in independent schools. Some will not allow such a student to return to school, no matter what. Others may give first offenders a second chance, subject to their agreeing to random testing. Likewise, if one school takes a student who has been expelled from another for taking drugs, the accepting school can lay down such conditions. My own experience of this approach was 100 per cent successful. The real issue, however, is not whether there should be random testing in schools, but whether cannabis should be treated as a dangerous drug or not, because it is cannabis that 98 per cent of children take in schools, at least to begin with. For many years it was argued that smoking cannabis was no less dangerous than social drinking. But several well-respected researchers have shown cannabis is harmful to the growing brain, and that children are seriously at risk from taking it in their teenage years. It is incomprehensible that Tony Blair's government can on the one hand downgrade the classification of the drug, and yet at the same time impose random testing in schools. The only realistic and logical policy is to ensure that the very real dangers of cannabis are well understood by parents and children, that clear policies are developed, and that all schools firmly adhere to these policies. * Frank Gerstenberg was principal of George Watson's College from 1985 to 2001, and is a governor of Glenalmond College, Perthshire.
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